Method of salvaging bowling pin forms



June 22, 1954 F. B. MALY 2,681,672

METHOD OF SALVAGING BOWLING PIN FORMS Filed April 20, 1953 INVENTOR. Fran/i. M

BY W WI?! 14 TT'Y'S Patented June 22, 1954 METHOD OF SALVAGING BOWLING PIN FORMS Frank B. Maly, Antigo, Wis., assignor to Vulcan Corporation, Portsmouth, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application April 20, 1953, Serial No. 349,893

4 Claims.

This invention is directed to a process for salvaging bowling pin forms and is particularly concerned with economies of wood in the production of first grade bowling pins.

It is the primary object of the invention to provide for steps in the method of making bowling pins whereby certain parts of defective pins are salvaged and utilized to form high grade, composite bowling pins.

Another object is to provide in the foregoing process a step that will produce in the finished bowling pin a surface whereat there is presented a maximum of wood edge grain which will materially increase the life of the resulting pin.

The invention consists in the method steps as hereinafter described and particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings, which are illustrative of the steps in my process:

Fig. 1 is an elevational View of a defective unfinished bowling pin form comprising the initial form with which the present process is concerned.

Fig. 2 is an elevation of a clear section obtained from the bowling pin form shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an elevation of a composite bowling pin form made from a pair of the sections shown in Fi 2.

Fig. 4 is an elevation of a completed bowling pin formed by my process.

Fig. 5 is a section taken on line 5-5 of Fig. 4.

Figs. 6 and '7 are views similar to Fig. 5 and afford indication of variety in the relative disposition of the wood grain in the sections of a composite pin made according to my method.

The invention is concerned with the problem of producing high grade pins from a number of defective or cull pins discovered and put aside as inferior after an intermediate turning step in the usual process of manufacturing bowling pins. Most of the cull pins are discovered to be unsuited for the manufacture of high grade pins when selected wood blocks are rough turned in a lathe to provide an intermediate bowling pin form. These defective pins are for the most part characterized by the presence of defective wood in not more than a third of their total masses and it is the particular object of this invention to effectively and economically utilize the clear parts of these cull or defective pin forms to secure composite, two-sectioned bowling pins of the highest grade.

According to this invention composite, twosectioned bowling pins are formed by longitudinally cutting a number of rough turned bowling pin forms in a manner such that a clear section and a section containing all the defects is produced from each of the defective forms, and the masses of the clear sections so formed exceed half the mass of the original defective pins. The defective sections are then discarded. The faces of the clear sections formed by the cuts are dressed by light, smooth planing, and said clear sections are then adhesively secured together in pairs by gluing their dressed faces together. The resultant composite forms are then turned down in a lathe to provide high grade bowling pins of clear wood throughout.

Reference now being made to Fig. 1 of the drawings, the numeral I0 is the usual unfinished bowling pin form with lathe dog stubs at its ends to indicate that it is an intermediate article in the conventional method of manufacturing bowling pins, said form having one or more defects H therein which have heretofore required that a form in this condition be either discarded as a cull or patched up for sale as a second grade pin. Further the defective pin had usually been kiln dried before the defect was discovered; thus the discarding of the cull represented not only a total loss of material but a substantial loss in the operating costs required to produce these incomplete bowling pin forms.

A predetermined cutting step is therefore performed on a number of the defective bowling pin forms In in order to divide the said forms into a section l2 having clear wood throughout and a section l3 containing all the defects II; the latter section being usually discarded as of no further use in the manufacture of bowling pins. Ihe plane of the sectionalizing saw cut for the defective forms is indicated by the broken line 14 in Fig. 1, it being noted that said out is offset with respect to the longitudinal center line I5 of the form in the direction of the defective section to provide the clear section with a mass that is substantially greater than the mass of the defective, discardable section. In other words the masses of the clear sections I2 exceed half the mass of the defective bowling pin forms ID from which they are cut.

With reference to Fig. 2 it is to be seen that the flat faces it formed on the clear sections l2 by the sectionalizing saw cuts of the previous step in the present process are preferably dressed to smooth finishes. With respect to Fig. 3 the next step in my process is to securely fix together two of the clear sections by applying glue to their fiat. dressed faces I5 to thus provide a composite bowling pin form I! of clear wood throughout having two clear sections 12-42 joined together in aligned, face-to-face relationship by a glue joint 18. These bowling pin forms 11 are oversize with respect to the original defective bowling pin forms 10, or to the final bowling pins, indicated by the reference numeral I9 in Fig. 4, because the mass of each of the two clear sections l2-l2 comprising the composite form ll slightly exceeds half the mass of the original forms H) from which they were cut. Thus there is an excess of wood in the composite form which can be turned away in a lathe to produce a bowling pin l9 which has the required specifications as to overall height and width. The form ll is therefore turned down in a lathe to the required specifications to form a high grade, composite bowling pin i9 having identically formed half sections 20 and 2% secured together along a planar, centrally located glue joint 22.

As best shown in Figs. 5-7 the disposition of the wood grains in the two sections which form a composite bowling pin is subject to considerable variation which in turn varies the physical characteristics of said pin. With reference to Fig.5

it will be seen that the sections 20 and 21 were through the original defective pin forms in planes substantially normal to the directions of grain in the initial defective pin forms iii. The resultant bowling pin will thus present the usual amount of edge grain at the face of the pin. Figs. 6 and 7 show bowling pins Whose sections 20 and 2! were formed by secticnalizing cuts passed at an angle to the planes of the grains in the defective bowling pin forms l!) to efiect the presentation of a maximum of edge grain wood at the surfaces of the finished bowling pins What is claimed is:

1. Steps in the method of making composite, two-sectioned bowling pins comprising cutting each of a number of identically shaped and defective bowling pin forms into a clear wood section and a section containing all of the defects of that form, the dividing cut being taken in a predetermined longitudinal plane throughall of the forms, such that the mass of each clear wood section exceeds half of the mass of the said form,

dressing the faces of the clear wood sections the direction of the defective portions in said forms.

3. Steps in the method of making a composite, two-sectioned bowling pin comprising dividing each of a number of defective, unfinished bowling pin forms into clear sections having masses in excess of half the masses of the unfinished pin forms, and fixedly securing those clear sections in pairs to form oversize unfinished bowling pins from which finished pins may be turned in a lathe.

4. Steps in the method of making a composite, two-sectioned bowling pin comprising cutting each of a number of unfinished bowling pin forms into clear sections each having a mass in excess of half the mass of the said unfinished pins, and into a discardable section containing all thedefects, the sectionalizing cuts being directed through the bowling pin forms in planes across and at various angles with respect to the wood grains of said formsydressing the faces'of the clear sections formed by the cuts, and then making composite, oversize bowling pin forms 'by fixedly securing selected pairs of those clear sections together in face-to-face relationship to effeet the presentation of a maximum of edge grain wood at the surface of thefinished bowling pins turned from said composite, oversize bowling pin forms.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,691,915 Hillerich Oct. 5, 1926 1,778,333 Neuman Oct. 14, 1930 2,382,208 Corbin Aug. 14, 1945 2,395,134 McKenzie Feb. 19, 1946 2,634,774 Francar Apr. 14, 1953 tar 

